In this week’s episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, Adam Quigley and Russ Fischer discuss their thoughts on this year’s Oscar nominations, reflect on the novelty of 3D upconversion, assess Taylor Lautner’s career, show some love for Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, and share theories about the final season of Lost.

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See a fresh red band clip from Pierre Morel‘s From Paris With Love after the break, courtesy of My Space. It gives us a pretty good idea of the particular ‘types’ John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers have been allocated. There’s also a bit of swearing, some violence and a bit of business with a vase that I can’t quite understand.

Maybe I’m overthinking it. Perhaps he just wants to steal it?

I’m pretty sure this film is going to deliver the standard smart-daft Europacorp japes. If it’s one half as entertaining as Taken, we’re guaranteed a good night out at the pictures.

Following up on the earlier news about Pierre Morel (District B13, Taken) directing Dune, we now have the second trailer for his next feature, From Paris with Love. The film stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and concerns a young embassy worker who teams up with an unruly FBI agent to stop a terrorist attack in Paris. It’s pretty obvious who’s who. Luc Besson is also credited with the film’s story, not unlike many other films he produces. Instead of Besson’s regular screenwriting bud Robert Mark Kamen, Paris’s script was written by Adi Hasak.

Pierre Morel’s follow up to the sleeper smash Taken is another Europacorp produced action machine. From Paris With Love stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as an embassy worker and John Travolta as a spy, thrown together by some apparent misunderstanding and charged with smashing, crashing and all-round actioneering in order to thwart a terrorist threat in the French capital. Check out the trailer for yourself after the break.

Mediacorp scriptmeister Robert Mark Kamen has been telling theLos Angeles Times all about his next assignments for the big French action factory, and both of the films they namedrop are seemingly inevitable responses to the studio’s past glories.

Besides a sequel to Taken, the sleeper hit of the year (so far), Kamen is also crafting the screenplay for a US set rehash of Banlieue 13 – or District B13 as it was already renamed in English speaking territories. The original took an American paradigm – Escape From New York, essentially – and gave it such a specifically French spin that, frankly, I don’t know what sort of mess we’ll end up with after it gets spun back the other way.

I can’t remember the last live-action movie that John Travolta starred in that I actually enjoyed, or even wanted to see. His latest film,From Paris With Love is co-written and produced by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), and directed by District B13 helmer Pierre Morel, tells the story of a young embassy worker and an American secret agent who cross paths while working on a high-risk mission in Paris. The movie co-stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

The talent involved gives the project promise, but the plot description sounds rather generic, and some of the shots in this promotional trailer are iffy, at best. I’m not saying this film looks cool, but for some reason I’m actually interested in checking this one out. Leave your thoughts in the comments below but keep in mind that the film is still in production and this is a promotional trailer with unfinished effects/sound/everything. Thanks to Christopher M for the tip.